Blackcatter, I wasn't trying to read stuff into what you said - sorry if I did. I was going on your comment:

Reading other fantastic stuff, spurred on by HP, is like watching more sitcoms because you like Friends. Hardly mind expanding.

I was trying to say that fantasy *can* be mind expanding, and there's no reason it should be "fluff" like some sitcom. HP is certainly escapism, but not of a mindless variety (sorry to Friends fans, but it *is* mindless), and moving from that to other fantasy is no bad way of getting a foothold into literature.

As an adult, I'm quite aware of how the wizards in HP are becoming more and more bullying towards non-wizards. This is a book about children growing up, for children growing up, and children do stuff like that. With a bit of luck it could spark some thoughts amongst kids. I'm quite sure Rowling is setting this up deliberately.

As for quantities of non-whites in HP, this is Britain which doesn't have as large a black population as the US. As far as I can tell, numbers are about consistent with real life. Whites *do* make up all the major characters - for that, I can only assume Rowling is writing for a culture she knows.

I disagree with SRS - there clearly *is* a racial element. As with Pratchett, skin colour is less relevant when "different races" means some with four legs and some 20 feet tall! But the important point made in HP (and in Pratchett) is dealing with them as people with their own motivations and their own moral codes, and not trying to impose your own judgements on them. Hermione's house elf campaign is a nice example, but other characters' mis-steps (with the centaurs, for example) show the same kind of approach. Some non-human characters are nice, and some aren't. And the wizarding society's attitudes to non-human races is about as clear a parallel on racism as you're likely to get.

Graham.